McAndrew Road Relay

1st October 2011
Results | Photos
The traditional opening race of the Glasgow winter road and cross country season.

I hadn't run the McAndrew Relay since 2006 when I clocked 18:46. I was fairly sure I could beat that time, but didn't know how much effect donating blood on Wednesday evening was going to have.

Niall ran Leg 1 in 18:12, coming in about 25 seconds adrift of Garscube and Calderglen Vets.  I set out chasing Garscube and Calderglen, but made no ground on them, and was passed quite early on by Craig Ruddy who ran the fastest time of the day with 15:32. Once I reached Queen Victoria Drive after 1 mile, I could no longer see any runners in front, and also wasn't caught by anyone during the next 2.3 miles, so it was a bit hard to stay motivated.

I imagined that even with a poor run I would go below 19 minutes, but finished in 19:08 feeling horribly washed out and out of sorts, so decided immediately not to bother with the SVHC Half Marathon tomorrow.

I'm hoping that I might be back firing on a few more cylinders by next weekend for the West District Relays and Pentland Skyline.

Johnston and John Quinn ran solid legs on the final 2 stages with 20:51 and 20:29 respectively.